Reviewer: Truhlsrohk
Publisher: Minion Games
Designer: Daniel Callister
Ages 8 & Up, 2 – 6 Players, 30 Minutes
NILE Deluxor – The Game of Ancient Agriculture
NILE Deluxor courtesy of Minion Games - Thanks Guy's!
When we saw Minion Games offer on Facebook for gaming clubs to play and review their games, we took up the challenge!! This month saw the arrival of Nile Deluxor.
One thing I noticed when first opening the box and reading the rules pamphlet, is that it does not list the contents. If a card or two went missing, it would be hard to tell as there is no guide to tell you what should be in the box.
The artwork is bright, simple to read and colourful.
You get all of this!
You get: 7 different types of Crops – each containing 14 cards. They are Papyrus (Red), Wheat (Yellow), Lettuce (Green), Castor (Brown), Flax (Lavender), Grape (Purple) and Onion (Tan). Speculation Cards – 21 speculation cards, each of these depict two of the crops. Stone Cards – 14 of these which are used to build monuments. Monuments - There are 3 , Obelisk – Draw three cards at end of turn, Sphinx – Harvest twice your resources are flooded, Wall – Outplanted by two or more. Flood – 1 card. Plague of Locusts – 1 card. Season Cards - 3 double sided numbered 1 to 6, these are round counters.
When setting up, you will only need some of the crops – unless you are playing with 6 players. In that case you use them all. 2-4 players remove 2 crops, 5 players remove one crop.
Stone and monuments are optional and considered an expansion, you may chosse not to play with them.
To set up, shuffle the crops and stone (if using) together and deal each player 5 cards. Then take the Plague of Locusts card and shuffle it into the remaing crop cards and place next to the flood card in the middle of the table. Should look something like this:
3 player game ready to start
Each of your turns will comprise of steps – 1 FLOOD, 2 HARVEST, 3 TRADE, 4 PLANT or SPECULATE, 5 DRAW.
FLOOD: The first thing you do is turn over the top card from the deck and place it on the flood card. Flooding can have 3 effects. 1. You may harvest from your fields if the card revealed matches one of your crops. You may only harvest 1 card. 2. It shows what crops cannot be played from your hand this turn. 3. Speculation cards are also resolved now.
HARVEST: As mentioned above, if you have a planted crop that matches the flood card, you may harvest a card. To do this you take one card from the field and place it face down to form a stockpile of harvested crops. If the flood card is a speculation card, it will show multiple crops. when this happens, harvest the crops shown. If Plague of Locusts is revealed as the flood card it must be resolved immediately and then a new card drawn.
TRADE: Trading allows you to discard 2 useless cards for 1 new one drawn from the deck. There are two options for trading – 1. Market – Discard any two cards (crop or speculation) from your hand / storage pile and draw one card to your hand. 2. Offering to Hapi - Discard any two cards (crop or speculation) from your hand / storage pile and replace the current flood card thus causing a new harvest and preventing other cards being played. You can choose not to trade or trade multiple times if you have the cards. Cards traded are discarded. You may not trade with other players or use planted cards.
PLANT or SPECULATE: This step is regulated by the flood card and any crop showing cannot be played during this step. PLANT - To plant you must place crops from your hand face up in front of you, forming a field. While a field of a given crop type is in play, no one else may create a field using the same crop ( unless it is larger). When planting you may: 1. Plant at least two cards of the same crop, 2. Plant exactly two cards but different crops (one of which may be planted to an existing field), 3. Plant any number of crops to any number of existing fields you control. Remember, you cannot plant a crop already in another player field unless the new field will contain more cards. If this happens, discard the other players field. SPECULATE - Instead of planting you can play 1 or 2 speculate cards. When the next player turns over the flood card, if the speculate card (or both) share the crop type, draw 3 or 6 cards respectively. The speculate cards are then discarded whether matching or not.
DRAW: Draw 2 cards to finish your turn.
PLAGUE of LOCUSTS: If the Plague of Locusts is drawn it must be announced immediately. It is placed face up on the table and the palyer with the largest field (or monument if being used) discards the field. In the event of a tie, both (all) tied fields are lost and discarded. Draw another card and play on.
END OF GAME: Play through the draw pile once for each player. Once the final card is drawn the game ends. Use the season cards to record how many times you have played through the deck.
SCORING: Players now seperate the crops in their Stockpiles. They then line them up from left to right starting with crop type for which they had the least cards (even if zero). So if you only have 4 different crop types, your first column is 0. Players compare their piles from the left, who ever has the biggest pile wins. If it is a draw, move one pile to the left and so on until you have a winner.
STONE and MONUMENTS: If using these, the stone cards are shuffled in with the crops. When you play a stone(s) card, you must pick a monument. A monument can be out built if more stone cards are played by another player just like crops in a field. If stone is turned onto the flood card, the players must discard a stone card, if the monument only had 1 stone card it is also discarded. Stone is not scored at the end of the game.
EXAMPLE OF PLAY:
Each player has had their first turn
The first player has turned over a Red Papyrus which no one can harvest (being first turn), also he cannot plant it. He played two stone and built the Wall monument. This means the other players need to beat his crops by 2. He has a Flax, Lettuce & Wheat left. He draws 2 cards and gets a Papyrus and a grape.
The second Player also turned over a Papyrus for the flood card, again no one harvests. They play 2 wheat cards, preferring not to play the stone cards this turn. They also have another wheat, but you can only play 2 cards to start a field. He draws 2 cards getting a Papyrus and another wheat.
The third player turns over a Flax card, no one harvests. He playes 2 lettuce leaving a Papyrus, Stone and speculation card in hand and then draws a grape & papyrus card.
- Turn 2 (without the toes…)
Player 1 turned over a Papyrus for the flood card. He then played a Flax & Grape. He then drew 2 cards.
Player 2 turned over a stone flood card and player 1 discarded 1 stone under his monument. Player two then adds 2 more wheat to his field and draws 2 cards.
Player 3 turns over a Flax for flood. Player 1 harvests his Flax and starts his stockpile. Player 3 then plays 2 Papyrus into a new field.
And so the game goes….
It is a fun game to play and the trick is learning to trade… People like to build big hands in this game, but trading can narrow the choices for you and deny your opponents theirs!
Oh, and watch out for the locust! He is friend to no one!!!
Until next time, have fun and play as many games as you can!! TRUHLSROHK signing off.
If you enjoyed this review, you may also enjoy our reviews of:
Colossal Arena
Deadwood
Dominion
